“HOW TO START A BLOG?” – This is the same question that a newbie asks when he/she is interested to start a blog. Even though starting a blog might seem like it is something that would be very easy, it actually is not. Thousands of people search for how to start a blog but still don’t get anywhere because of wrong approach. If your goal is to create a cash sucking blog that will bring in readers and customers, then you will need to understand the individual components that will give you the best chance to do this.
Those important components required in order to successfully start a blog would be niche selection, domain name selection, the blogging platform, web hosting, and the design of your blog. Each of these components must be understood and properly executed. And in this post, I am going to finally teach you how to start a blog from scratch…
#1. How To Start A Blog? – Niche Selection
Niche selection is going to be very important when you are first looking for how to start a blog. If you choose the right niche then getting readers will be easy. The basis for choosing a niche is to choose a sector of people who are thirsty for information. These people must have a number of problems and questions that are not being solved or answered elsewhere at least not in great amount.
There will be certain keywords they will use in order to search for the information they want. You must know how to identify these keywords along with the problems a given niche will have. You can do this by using keyword research tools or you can use Google keyword research tool, which is free.
You must also measure the competition for these keywords, this is best done by typing in your keywords in the search engine, going through the top ten sites and seeing which ones actually deliver on the promises they make in their titles. Also, you will want to measure the authority of the website itself to see how hard it might be to crack a given niche.
Recommended Niche/Keyword Research Tool :- Keyword Elite or Keyword Winner (wordpress plugin).
#2. How To Start A Blog? – Domain Name Selection
When you start up a new blog the domain name you decide to use can either make or break its success. Your domain name must advertise what the subject or core topic of your blog is going to be. If you are interested in monetization, which I am sure you are, then you will need to focus on getting a domain name for your blog that incorporates the keywords in it.
It would be even better if the keyword in the domain is an exact match keyword. Besides from this you must also pay attention to other things concerning domain name selection. You must make sure the domain is short, easy to spell, and more importantly easy to remember.
Recommended Domain Registrar -: Name.com.
Do try their ubersearch feature…It’s really cool for marketers!
#3. How To Start A Blog? – Blogging Platforms
When it comes to the type of blogging platform you will be using for your new blog you will have a large number of choices. Your main two choices however should be WordPress and Blogger. Both of these blogging platforms are free and are easily customizable.
Each ones comes with its advantages, Blogger for instance is owned by Google, which means it might be easier to rank right away. You might also be able to get traffic without much promotion. You will have the option of upgrading it if you want by getting a private domain.
WordPress might be the better option when it comes to blogging platforms, free or self hosted. WordPress is so powerful because it has a large number of SEO plugins that you can install. There is a sitemap plugin, a Google map plugin, Adsense plugins, membership plugins, and many more. It is also easy for you to set up WordPress with any web hosting service that is having the Fantastico script in their cPanel.
Personally I would recommend you to buy web hosting and self-host a wordpress blog on it for complete control on your blog.
#4. How To Start A Blog? – Web Hosting When Self-Hosting The Blog
You will have a hard time moving Blogger onto a private host afterwards, however you will easily be able to set up WordPress with just about any web hosting service you decide to use. If you are questioning the value that web hosting has when you decide to self-host your blog consider these benefits.
With self hosting you will have full control over your website, graphics, and content. You will have a unique domain address. You will have the potential to be perceived as more professional, and it will belong to you not the company that owns the platform.
Recommended Web Hosting -: HostGator (read my hostgator review) – 25% Discount Coupon: SMARTBLOGGERZ25 .
#5. How To Start A Blog? – Blog Design
Blog design is an area that can really make or break the success of your blog. It can impact how long people stay on your site, how it ranks in search engines, and it can affect how long it takes to load up. The areas you want to focus on when it comes to blog design would be having a good customized header at the top.
You want to make sure that the blog is easy to navigate so people do not leave. Include a search engine bar so people can easily find past posts. You will need to decide on how you want your non blog post pages to appear. You will also want to make sure you pick the right theme if you decide to use WordPress and make sure it includes the necessary social sharing features.
Recommended Blog Themes:
- Thesis Theme – Best Thesis Skin Club: Kolakube
- Ultimate Blogging Theme
- Woo Themes
- StudioPress
Putting most of your focus into these five things will ensure you build a good blog that will get traffic. If you are consistent with good content creation, and you make sure you posts are properly optimized, then the rest should take care of itself. Share your comments with me below if you have anything to say on how to start a blog.
Top 10 Search Terms:
• how to start a blog • starting a blog • start a blog
Hey Sushant,
This is a very informative article and this is the type of article I’ll definitely look up to in case I set up a blog in the future. I also agree with some of the commenters that it is first of all important to choose the right niche than to stand at crossroads. It is a must to ‘Plan ahead and Plan well.’
Best tips for beginners Sushant and I think keyword selection make your rest of the job easy. I use google keyword tool, howevr I think I should go for some better tool.
The toughest thing in starting a blog is choosing a blogging niche in which the whole blog future depend. Should start a blogging in niche in which they are interested. Again designing is tough as it should be user friendly.
Niche selection for me, is the most important. If you can write good content about your specific niche people will stick to your blog no matter what platform you are working on.
Hey Sushant, what you’ve mentioned seems to be the basics of SEO. niche selection, domain name, hosting, and design. For people that are completely new to the game, this stuff would be a fountain of info, but for the rest of us this is just the basics.
Yes, I won’t disagree with you on this Max. This post was majorly written keeping newbies in mind so that I can help them out starting a blog.
But still for those who think that they have stepped into advanced stage still make some mistakes mainly in niche and domain selection part. So it’s like a revision for those too if they will read this post.
Thanks for commenting Max!
Yeah, I agree with you about domain name selection. A proper suitable domain is must for a blog to go on the way of success. Also, hostgator is cool.. I myself use hostgator.
Thanks for the useful post…
Thanks for commenting Akshay! BTW, why you using .co.cc domain now? All the domains using .co.cc have been removed from Google index…So it isn’t effective anymore. Are you aware of this?
Oh really, I didn’t know that. Sushant yaar, thank you for this very important update. I was using co.cc for almost all of my blogs and sites. But now, when you told me this thing I changed the domains of my major blogs and sites. Today itself i bought a .net domain for my wTechs network, which was previously a co.cc.
Thank you very very much…..you are really great..
Great to know that you have at least realized it now. You have made a great investment by getting a personal domain name.
Yeah, and i am also invested in buying hosting at hostgator… It really feels great!
There is definitely alot to starting your own blog, it looks easier from the outside but there are so many little details and elements to it like you are saying. One word of advice about domain name selection, whatever you do, try to avoid domain names with dashes in them, and always bear in mind the idea of sharing your domain name with people in person. I learned the hard way when I was explaining to a friend what my web address was that having dashes was way complicated. Also in my opinion it is best to go with a .com
-Jean
Yes, the dashes makes it look ugly and complicated. But you can consider them if you don’t want to tell the world that you are blogging there and just want to have good keyword rich domain with dashes that you think could perform well in seo to help you make money online.
Thanks for commenting Jean!
this was a great article and very good advice. i am a big fan of WP and it seems like you are also it just seems to be more user friendly, with lots of functionality and a great way for a beginner to start their own blog in just a few minutes.
I agree to you. Starting a wordpress blog hardly takes 1 minute for me now. It should not take more than 5 minutes for a complete newbie who have the tutorial in front of the screen on how to start a blog on wordpress.
Blogs using wordpress platform looks more appealing according to me due its robust features and huge community of developers that keep presenting new things for the wordpress blog owners. And this is not the case with Google’s blogger platform right now and that’s why wordpress leads rights now.
Thanks for commenting Ellie.
I guess starting new blogs has become quite a routine kind of thing now … it’s just as easy now as boiling an egg – but still there may be people around who would benefit from this post on how to start a blog.
Yes, you are right. Even for me creating a new blog is very easy but when I started I didn’t knew this and there will be many who are starting out and want to how to start a blog.
So I am just sharing this post here because I get asked this thing many times and it will really save my time too now.
Thanks for commenting Azam!
Finding the right niche is very important. Once I know that my niche has a lot of global monthly search and has low competition then I would definitely go for that niche. The next step for me is providing a quality content.
Thanks for commenting Adam! One must not get excited with the low competition of highly searched keyword that the Google AdWords keyword tool shows.
The low competition bar just tells that the PPC advertisers are not advertising for that keyword and there could be many reasons for this and not just that the keyword isn’t profitable because AdSense is not the only way to monetize a blog. There are some other REAL ways to detect competition for a keyword for which I think it will require a completely new post to discuss on it.